with regard to the maintenance changes at Fulford Cemetery Grounds.

Fulford Cemetery provides a place of emotional connection for people’s family members

and friends and is a place of contemplation and comfort. It is to the great regret of the

Parish Council that maintaining the Cemetery in the way it was done in the past is no

longer possible, and that finding solutions to the challenges faced is not easy. This

document sets out to explain the complex issues that have resulted in a different

approach to management of the grounds. The Parish Council understands and is very

sympathetic to many of the views and feelings expressed by visitors to Fulford Cemetery

relating to these changes in the arrangements for the maintenance of the grounds.

From much of the correspondence received, there appears to have been some

misunderstandings about the extent of the changes and the reasons behind them, so the

Parish Council is making this statement to clarify the levels of service being provided in

the Cemetery grounds to give some background to the decisions taken, and to provide

information on the ongoing work to review and help remediate visitor’s concerns.

Fulford Cemetery is unique in that it is the only Cemetery in the country run by a Parish

Council but providing burial services for the population of a city. Parish Councils have

very limited resources and support compared to other local authorities in terms of

finances, people, specialised services, facilities and equipment. Fulford Parish Council

consists of 9 volunteer councillors, one part-time Clerk, one Cemetery Officer and

currently 3 Cemetery Groundstaff. The Parish Council is also responsible for the open

spaces it owns, Fulford Social Hall, planning responses and working pro-actively on local

issues such as development, flooding, traffic, recreation and the environment.

Outside of an annual contribution by City of York Council, plus an annual payment from

Commonwealth War Graves Commission which currently between them equates to less

than £9,000, all staff, equipment and other expenditure incurred at Fulford Cemetery are

solely funded by income from new burials and memorials. The Cemetery has no access

to other resources, reserves or income to cover running costs.

Until recently, the income from burials and memorials at the Cemetery covered all

expenditure. Under the terms of an Agreement with City of York Council dating back to

1965, any profits made by the Cemetery must be transferred to a separate account and

used only for capital expenditure for the development of the Cemetery. The Parish

Council has therefore never received any profit from Fulford Cemetery and the

Cemetery’s accounts are separated from those of the Parish Council.Over the past few years, running costs at the Cemetery have necessarily increased - fuel,

unfunded national salary increases, national insurance increase, business rates, utilities

have all risen. Annual expenditure varies year to year but has been in excess of £190,000

since 2021. Income, however, has significantly dropped, particularly over the past 2

years. This is undoubtedly due to a national change in bereavement services, away from

burials to the highly advertised “pure” or “direct” cremations – a trend that has increased

year on year, and especially since 2020. In 2019-2020 for instance, there were 173 burials

at Fulford Cemetery but in 2024-2025, this number dropped to 115. A continued increase

in costs cannot be sustained with such decrease in income.

In 2023/2024 Fulford Cemetery made a loss in excess of £12,000 and in 2024/2025

further losses were made. Excluding redundancy related expenditure incurred to mitigate

future losses, the 2024/2025 financial year ended with a deficit in excess of £36,300.

Fulford Parish Council has to fund 20% of any losses with the remaining 80% being

funded by City of York Council. Neither council has indefinite reserves to fund such

continued losses and these losses impact other services and projects that both the City

and the Parish Council are also obliged to provide.

The only possible area where future savings could be made has been employment costs

and this has necessarily resulted in changes being made to levels of staffing, and

consequently this has impacted the frequency and acreage of grass cutting in the

Cemetery grounds.

This is not a situation in which anyone at the Parish Council wanted to be, and no

decisions taken by the Parish Council in this regard have been taken lightly, quite the

contrary.

Grass cutting is continuing within the 30 acres of the Cemetery grounds. Grounds

maintenance and gravedigging services are carried out by 2 to 3 members of groundstaff

at present and this will reduce to 2 members of groundstaff from August (in the past the

Cemetery was able to afford six employees to cover the site). By law, use of machinery is

limited to 4 hours per day for each member of groundstaff (Control of Vibration at Work

Regulations 2005). Numbers of burials vary from week to week and from day to day but

where burials have been booked, preparations for (and after) the burials must take

precedence over grass cutting and other grounds maintenance.

Parish Councillors, the Clerk and Cemetery staff have recently met with officers from the

Communities Team at City of York Council to look at how volunteering opportunities

within the Cemetery grounds could be used e.g. to clear paths, strim some areas to

provide routes through to plots where the ground is particularly uneven, weeding,

cleaning benches etc. It is hoped therefore that the assistance of volunteers will help in

the near future and work is ongoing to try to make this happen.The Cemetery has always offered an additional Grave Maintenance service. Specific

grave maintenance has never been a service included in the fees for the Grant of

Exclusive Right of Burial or in the cost of interment. Whist the grounds have generally

been maintained at no fee, and where possible will continue to be, the Grave

Maintenance additional service provides grass cutting at individual graves twice per

month during the grass cutting season (weather permitting) and the current fee for this

service is £67.20 (£56 + VAT). The notice in the Cemetery grounds referred to this service

to inform visitors of its availability only, it is not a new proposal and has not been intended

to be interpreted as such.

Although the reduction in frequency and location of grass cutting has largely been driven

by financial reality, the opportunity to improve the biodiversity within the Cemetery

grounds is compatible with the Parish Council’s commitment to biodiversity and nature

recovery under the 2021 Environment Act. The Parish Council is not seeking to mask

essential cost cutting through environmental claims as some people have been led to

believe, the two outcomes are equally important.

The Parish Council has been very pleased to receive positive feedback from some

Cemetery visitors, praising the varied grasses and wildflowers coming through and hopes

the continued improvements to biodiversity prove environmentally beneficial.

The plan at Appendix 1 is available on the Parish Council website at https://www.fulford

pc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/140/2025/05/Fulford-Cemetery-Grass-Cutting-

Programme-2025-1.png and at Appendix 1 below, shows the frequency (subject to

weather conditions) and type of grass cutting planned in each of the areas of the

Cemetery for this season.

With regard to the queries raised by some correspondents in connection with the

absence of public toilets, the Parish Council is sorry that it is unable to provide public

toilets at Fulford Cemetery and fully appreciates the concerns expressed. The building

that was previously used to provide public toilet facilities at Fulford Cemetery became

unfit for purpose a number of years ago and because of this the Parish Council took the

decision to close the toilets in April 2018. This necessary closure was due to years of

persistent misuse of the facilities (both vandalism and anti-social behaviour), combined

with the significant collapse of the drains leading to and beneath the building. The roof

of the building is also no longer viable and the electricity supply to the building had to be

removed in August 2019.

The Parish Council is mindful that visitors would find provision of toilet facilities at the

Cemetery beneficial. Councillors are sympathetic to concerns that have been raised and

because of this, whilst there is no legal requirement to provide public toilet facilities, the

Parish Council’s Cemetery Committee reviewed the situation in January 2021, in March

2022 and again in February 2023. However, because the building previously used for thetoilets is no longer viable, the only alternative options to provide toilets would be to

construct new facilities with new drainage & sewer connections, install an automatic

booth or lease portable units. Each of these options would require significant initial

investment plus annual running costs estimated to be in the region of £8,000 for ongoing

maintenance, cleaning and monitoring of the unit(s). This therefore cannot be afforded

for the reasons explained earlier.

The Parish Council understands that many visitors have individual concerns and strong

views on Fulford Cemetery. Councillors fully appreciate that the current situation will not

satisfy everyone’s wishes which is why efforts are being made to seek assistance by other

means such as City of York Council’s volunteering schemes